Customer Parking: Frequently Asked Questions

While a good parking lot design does a lot to create a well-organized customer parking area, a few additional measures can ensure the lot remains organized. Adopting and implementing a digital parking system can help save your patrons the hassle of waiting in line and searching for available parking spots, and also prevent crowding and congestion outside the parking area. When coupled with human intervention in the form of security personnel, this can keep many of your parking lot woes at bay. 

Additionally, installing customer parking signage that identifies customer parking areas and other parking lot traffic signs also helps in keeping customer parking areas streamlined. 

While it may not always be possible to differentiate customer vehicles from non-customer vehicles, property owners/businesses can take action against vehicles taking up parking space in an unauthorized or unreasonable way. Strong warning messages can be directly displayed at customer parking spaces to deter unwanted vehicles. Further actions can be undertaken if necessary. For instance, if a business owner comes across a vehicle parked in a reserved parking area for an unreasonable period of time, he/she may get the vehicle towed away after trying to locate the vehicle owner. It is always a good idea to check your local laws when it comes to parking regulations.

Businesses can take a few steps to create more space for customers in their parking. They may ask their staff to park their vehicles off the site. Ensuring there are no objects blocking any potential or actual parking areas may also create more parking space. They can also help to provide parking-related information such as busy times, charges, challenges etc. as well as information about alternative transportation options to reach your establishment on the business website or via signage.

Customer parking and guest parking are both reserved parking areas created for the convenience of customers and guests respectively. While guest refers to individuals who have been invited somewhere or to avail a service, customers are persons who pay money in exchange for products and/or services. Guest parking is a common facility provided by hotels, resorts, clubs, motels, residences, etc. On the other hand, customer parking is more commonly provided by restaurants, retailers, businesses, service providers, etc.

Parking owners have the right to decide who may or may not park in their facility. While reserving an entire parking space for customers only could prove to be an inconvenience for the staff, it can be done as long as the parking lot complies with applicable laws and provides accessible parking.